


Taking The Train

by ToriWritesStories



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bookstores, Clarke and Lexa meet on a train, Coffee Shops, F/F, Fluff, Musician!Lexa, This is a random one shot I felt like writing, Writer!Clarke, train
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-12-31 10:45:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12130764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToriWritesStories/pseuds/ToriWritesStories
Summary: Clarke's car is in the shop, so she has to take the train to work everyday for week, and she sees a girl who captivates her like no one else, and who doesn't seem crept out by her staring.





	Taking The Train

**Author's Note:**

> Hey lovelies, I felt bad about not getting an update for Cheap Thrills up this past weekend, so I decided to write and post a one shot this week!  
> It's just something I felt like writing, I took the DART trains in Dallas for the first time over the weekend and just thought it would be fun to write something like this. So, short and sweet basically.  
> There will be another Cheap Thrills update this weekend, though!
> 
> Enjoy!!xx

Clarke glanced down at her phone, which was suddenly flashing at her as she walked. Huffing slightly, she pulled her coat slightly tighter around her, and then swiped the answer bar. “Hey,” she said into the phone, pressing it to her ear and fixing her gaze ahead of her again.

“Did you make it there okay?” It was her roommate, who also happened to be her overprotective best friend, Raven.

“Yeah, I just got here,” Clarke answered, glancing at the public transit station she was at. She’d walked here from their apartment. It was about a fifteen minute journey – not too bad, but it was enough to tire her out. “But uh yeah, I can’t wait till this is over with.”

“When did you say that they said your car would be fixed and ready to go?” Raven wondered sympathetically. “And I’m still really sorry that I can’t take you to work myself.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Clarke insisted, glancing around at the different platforms in front of her and trying to figure out which was the one she was supposed to be at. “It’s so far out of your way anyway. I’m sure public transit could do me some good.”

“Like what? Half the people who ride those trains are scary,” Raven insisted. “Take it from someone who grew up in the less good side of town, Clarke.”

“Are you trying to scare me out of going to work for the next week, or what?” Clarke furrowed her eyebrows slightly. “I think I’ll be fine on the train, Rae.”

“I know, you’re just so sheltered, I’m not quite sure it’ll be good for you,” Raven said, and now the teasing was evident in her voice.

Clarke finally found the platform she was looking for, and noticed that the train was already pulling in. “Shit, Raven, I gotta go. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Back at you.” The line ended and Clarke shoved her phone into her coat pocket, shifting into a slight jog as she hurried toward the platform. The doors were about to close when she stepped through them, and she let out a sigh of relief once she was in the now moving car. The next one wouldn’t pass through for about another fifteen minutes, and Clarke would undoubtedly be late if she’d had to wait that extra time.

She glanced around the car to see if any seats were open, but seeing as it was commute time on a Monday, she was unsurprised to find that none were available. So she moved into a slightly more stable spot, grabbing onto a bar and settling in for the ride into the city.

Clarke was an avid people watcher, and definitely didn’t help that she worked at a bookstore/coffee corner hybrid where all sorts of interesting people frequented. At work, though, it was easy to people watch without it being too weird, since she had to look at her customers anyway. In public, it was a bit harder to inspect strangers without them noticing and taking it the wrong way.

Clarke hadn’t used any of the public trains since her freshman year of college, though, and she’d forgotten that people watching was always a bit more customary on them. So she glanced around at the characters around her, playing her normal game inside her head – what did they do for work? Were they single, dating, married? About half of them had backpacks slung over her their shoulders, and a number of those types were also frantically flipping through a notebooks or textbooks. That wasn’t too surprising – this train’s last stop, just two stops after where Clarke would be getting off, was at the university.

There was one girl with a backpack, though, who was leaning against one of the bars and looked so calm that if one forgot the time of day, they might guess she was headed home from university rather than the other way around. She had earbuds helping her shut out the world, though, so Clarke could understand. But as Clarke looked at the girl, she felt her eyebrows furrow slightly. The girl had the most stunning green eyes that Clarke had ever seen – they seemed to glow and glisten in the light shining through the train windows. Her hair was brown, though maybe lightened intentionally toward the ends, and framed her face in messy waves.

She could stare at the girl for ages, Clarke realized, just as those green eyes flickered away from wherever they’d been focused and instead met Clarke’s head on. The blonde immediately felt embarrassed about having been caught staring, but instead of looking away shyly, she managed a small smile at the girl, who simply smiled back before casting her gaze down and digging her hands further into her coat pockets.

After that, Clarke tried not to stare anymore at the beautiful girl, but it was a feat to be had.

Like Clarke suspected, the other girl did not get off the train before Clarke did. When it was Clarke’s stop though, and she turned toward the door, she didn’t miss the green gaze shifting back to her curiously.

* * *

“What are you thinking about?” Raven wondered later that night, nudging the blonde as she tried to pass her a cup of hot cocoa. Clarke blinked herself out of her thoughts, accepting the mug.

“Nothing.”

“Alright. So how was the return journey on the train?”

“Boring, although I did head back after rush hour, so I could sit down at least.”

“That’s nice. You had to stand on the way there?”

“Yeah, it was pretty packed. Lots of people going to work and school.”

“See, at least if I had to take a train to my job, it’s like only three stops away and the opposite direction of the university.”

“It’s not that bad, the students on the train are usually not the annoying ones anyway.” Clarke shrugged, her thoughts suddenly shifting to the brunette she’d seen on the train that morning. The thought alone caused her heart rate to quicken.

“Earth to Clarke,” Raven said a few seconds later, snapping her fingers in front of the girl. “You got lost in your head again.”

Blinking, the blonde swallowed. “Oh, my bad. How was your day?”

Raven started talking, and Clarke zoned out again despite her best efforts.

* * *

Tuesday morning, Clarke was slightly more on time to her train, but that didn’t change how full it was when she got on or that she still had to get in the first car to accommodate her arrival time. She still wasn’t able to get a seat, but she honestly didn’t really mind. Some of the people in the car were the same as the day before, but for the most part, they were different. And this wasn’t surprising, seeing as how there were multiple cars in the one train.

But Clarke still found herself looking for one person on the train, and she found her, standing in the exact same position as the day before – only now, her green eyes were trained on her phone. When the train started moving, Clarke tried to avert her gaze from the girl, but it was seemingly impossible. Only when the green gaze jumped up away from her phone did Clarke successfully keep her eyes away for more than a few seconds. But when it inevitably ended back at her, she was met with a returning gaze that didn’t break away for a good few seconds.

The whole train ride went like that, occasionally the two of them would make obvious eye contact, and after a few seconds, they’d look away, only to once again lock gazes. Clarke thought it was weird that the brunette wasn’t trying to avoid it, but at the same time, she probably should’ve been considered weird for staring in the first place.

And when the train pulled to a stop at Clarke’s stop, she was forced to break the eye contact for good and carry on with her day.

* * *

Wednesday morning, Clarke was early for her train. When she walked up to the platform, the digital sign displaying how long until the next train would arrive said she still had to wait for three minutes. She could’ve picked any spot on the platform to wait, but it was easiest to stop at the spot where the first car would stop. Plus, there was hopefully going to be a certain girl in that car.

There wasn’t. When Clarke squeezed her way into the train car, her eyes went to the spot where the brunette had been the previous two days, but she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere else in the car either, and Clarke felt herself deflate slightly. Of course, she couldn’t expect to see the same person in the same train every single day at the same time. Especially considering that there was about ten cars in this one train, and also that the girl was a student and her schedule could be totally different from one day to another.

It still bummed Clarke, though, until she realized how stupid it was to be upset by something that trivial, and she tried her best to put it out of her mind.

* * *

 

On Thursday, Clarke couldn’t help but be hopeful about who she might see on the train, despite the disappointment from the day before. She hopped into the train car just as it was stopping, her gaze immediately moving involuntarily over to that spot on the train, and sure enough, a certain brunette was there. She was typing something on her phone, and nodding her head slightly to whatever music was playing through her headphones.

When the train started moving again, green eyes hopped up and locked onto blue ones, and Clarke did something slightly different than the last time. She smiled at the brunette softly, trying to seem friendly rather than creepy. The girl smiled back, more fully than the initial shy smile Clarke had gotten from her on Monday, and Clarke was pretty sure that it was one of the most beautiful smiles she’d ever seen, soft and carefree and kind. Clarke didn’t even know the girl, but she just knew that she’d like her.

If, of course, Clarke ever dared to talk to her.

But as it was, this was probably Clarke’s second to last day even riding the train.

* * *

Later that day, while Clarke was serving coffee to one of her regular customers, the door to the shop swung open, and the chatter of a group of four college girls filled the space suddenly.

“Thank you,” the regular said to Clarke with a smile when she handed him the cup, and she nodded.

“No problem. Have a good one.” She smiled brightly at him as he dropped a dollar in the tip jar and turned to leave. As he did, Clarke settled her gaze on her new customers, but they weren’t coming up to the counter, instead they were going slightly further into the shop toward the shelves of books for sale. The bookstore portion of the shop had a separate cash register, so her coworker was now eyeing the girls expectantly. Normally, Clarke would shrug off the group and wipe down the counter or something, but suddenly, she realized that she recognized one of the college girls.

She was in the back of the group of her friends, looking slightly less involved in the conversation, but she seemed to be actively listening to whatever the rest of them were talking about. She had her backpack on, her thumbs hooked onto the bottom of either strap.

Clarke leaned against the counter, focusing on what they were saying.

“This is the first time since freshman year that the library didn’t have a book I needed for class,” one of them huffed out.

“Wait, what class was that? I thought the library was like, required to have all freshman level books.”

“Remember, I had that one weird ass lit teacher?”

“Which one?”

“His name was something Thompson, he was really weird.”

“Never heard of him. Who else had him?”

“Umm… he only had one lit section, I can’t remember who else was in it.”

“Really? What else did he teach?”

“Oh wait,” another one of them said, looking to the brunette in the back suddenly, “Lexa had him for her writing class, didn’t you?”

“Eric Thompson?” the brunette spoke finally, and Clarke shivered slightly at hearing her voice for the first time. Also, Clarke could finally assign a name to this beautiful girl – Lexa. “Yeah, I had him for my advanced creative writing class. He wasn’t too weird in there.”

“Yeah, but that’s because all writers are weird and you’re used to them.”

“When did you take that class again?”

Lexa answered, “Last semester. It was alright, but I should’ve taken another music elective.”

“You’re taking like, every music class that’s even available already, though.”

“You’d be surprised how many there are actually,” Lexa said, chuckling. “Now are you going to look for your book, or just stand here and rant about Eric Thompson?”

The first girl rolled her eyes, turning to the shelf and starting to look through it. As she did, her three friends, Lexa included, glanced around the shop. It was clear that they’d never been there before. There were a few other customers in the shop, although they were all seated in the small seating area in between the two registers.

But then Lexa turned to glance at the coffee menu, and said menu was directly above Clarke, who was staring a bit too obviously at the brunette. It didn’t take Lexa more than a couple of seconds to shift her eyes from the menu down to the barista, and they widened slightly upon recognizing Clarke.

Green eyes flickered back to her friends, and then to Clarke. The blonde was pretty sure that Lexa was going to ignore her – turn back to her friends and keep their interactions to staring only – but then the girl, her thumbs still hooked on her backpack straps, started walking over to the counter.

Clarke didn’t know what she was going to say until Lexa stopped in front of her, and the blonde leaned slightly into the counter in front of her and asked, “What can I get for you?”

“Medium sized latte, please,” Lexa requested, her gaze focused intensely on Clarke.

“Coming right up.” Clarke tugged herself away, turning around to make the girl’s drink. Her heart was beating embarrassingly quickly, but she was good at hiding her nerves. She made Lexa’s drink, which took only a minute, and then she turned back and slid it across the counter to the brunette. “Three twenty.”

Lexa reached into her pocket, retrieving a five and handing it over to the blonde. Clarke opened up the cash register, grabbing the girl’s change. 

“Need a receipt?”

“That’s okay,” Lexa declined. Clarke handed her the change, and as Lexa grabbed it, her soft fingers brushed the blonde’s hand. She immediately dropped the money into the tip jar, and then grabbed her coffee. “Thank you for the coffee…” Lexa glanced down at Clarke’s name tag curiously, before finishing with a soft, “Clarke.”

“You’re welcome.” Clarke figured it would be weird to use Lexa’s name, even though the girl’s friend had already said it.

But then Lexa told her softly, “Lexa.”

“You’re welcome, Lexa,” Clarke repeated now, smiling.

“They don’t have it, Lex,” one of the other girls suddenly said, the group of them walking toward the door. “There’s a bigger bookstore up the street, we’re gonna check there.”

“Alright,” Lexa said, her eyes still locked onto Clarke for another long second before she finally turned away. And just like that, the girl was gone, and Clarke was lost for words.

* * *

Friday morning, Clarke had already gotten the call that her car was ready to be picked up from the repair shop. But since she had to work, she wouldn’t be able to get it until later that day, and that meant that she would still be using the train for this last morning. She was there on time, ready to board onto the first car, and when she did, she instantly searched for Lexa.

But Lexa was already looking for her, and by the time the train had begun moving again, the brunette was pushing off of the bar she’d been leaning into and started over to the blonde. “So,” Lexa said to a surprised Clarke, “you work every day at that coffee shop. So you’re not in college?”

“Nope, graduated last year. Was an English major,” Clarke answered. “What are you, a junior?”

“Senior,” Lexa corrected. “Music major.”

Clarke lifted her eyebrow slightly. “Do you sing? Or play an instrument? Or what?”

“Kind of a bit of everything.”

“Impressive,” Clarke complimented with a slight nod. “I took a contemporary music class my sophomore year, but I never really got into it.”

“Learning music isn’t for everyone,” Lexa validated.

“What do you wanna do with your major?”

Lexa shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know yet. I interned at a music agency last summer and it gave me some ideas, but I think I just wanna ride out the rest of college before I make any big decisions. What about you? I mean, unless your English degree was required for you to make coffee inside a bookstore.” Lexa smirked a little, and Clarke felt her cheeks warm slightly.

“I’m a writer, thank you very much. I have a few eBooks out, actually.”

“Wow, now I’m impressed.”

“Don’t make fun of me, it’s easy to get shit out there, but it’s hard to make it blow up.”

“You gotta get one of those big publishers to see it, right, so that they do all the marketing for you?”

“Yeah, and that’s a lot harder than it sounds. I’ve had multiple manuscripts rejected by multiple publishers, and trust me, self-publishing an eBook is so much easier.”

“But you still have to work at a coffee shop.”

“Yeah well, I like it there.”

Lexa smiled. “Well, you make really good coffee, so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.”

“That’s right,” Clarke teased, returning the smile. Lexa glanced suddenly up at the end of the car that displayed which stop they were approaching, and as she did so, Clarke realized that the train was nearly at her stop. Lexa seemed to realize this too, and she looked back at the blonde curiously.

“Well… I guess I’ll see you next Monday?”

Clarke bit down on the inside of her lip. “Actually, riding the train was a temporary thing for me. My car just got fixed from a slight accident – which wasn’t my fault, just so you know.”

“Ah,” Lexa said thoughtfully, “well that’s a bummer.” She glanced back up at the screen really quickly, as though trying to determine how much time there was left before Clarke would have to get off the train. “Well…” She dug her hand into her coat pocket all of the sudden to retrieve her phone. “Give me your number at least? So I know the best time to come and buy some coffee from you, of course.”

“Of course,” Clarke replied with a chuckle, accepting Lexa’s phone when the brunette had opened up a new contact field. She typed her number in, as well as her first and last name, and then handed it back over to the brunette. “There you go.”

Lexa fiddled with the device for a moment, and then Clarke felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She grabbed it and checked the text message. It simply said Lexa’s name: Lexa Woods.

“I feel like there’s some proper amount of time you’re supposed to wait to text someone when they give you their number,” Clarke said teasingly, looking back up at Lexa’s captivating green eyes.

“Yeah well, I think social norms are stupid,” Lexa informed the blonde, just as the train was coming to a stop.

“Fair enough. I’ll still be waiting for your text, though.” Clarke pocketed her phone and got ready to get off the train.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it,” Lexa said, and Clarke flashed her a smile, getting off the train and starting the walk to the coffee shop.

And there was a newfound bounce in her step, because like she’d predicted, riding the train this week had definitely done her some good, and actually, it was considerably better than what she expected.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Twitter @BrittzandTana!  
> xx


End file.
